The Dead of Winter: How Battlefield Investigators, WWII Veterans, and Forensic Scientists Solved the Mystery of the Bulge's Lost Soldiers (review)

In late 1944 German forces on the Western Front made a bid to breach American defenses, capture Antwerp, and destroy opposing armies, thereby compelling the Western Allies to accept a political settlement. Instead, a swift U.S. counterattack wrecked the German Army. The entire action, known as the Battle of the Bulge, inflicted heavy losses on both sides, many in the dense Ardennes Forest. From 1944 to 1951 the American Graves Registration Service recovered and identified the remains of most U.S. soldiers killed during the fight. The Quartermaster Corps, however, could not account for all deceased Americans, some lost in the forest, others recovered but unidentifiable. Thereafter, locals periodically came across American and German dead; the encounters, however, produced few lasting consequences. Then, in 1988 two Belgian battlefield relic hunters, Jean-Louis Seel and Jean-Philippe Speder, unintentionally uncovered the remains of a missing American soldier near the Losheimergraben crossroads. Excited by the discovery, determined to find others, they partnered with military history enthusiasts, U.S. veterans, and European anthropologists to search for unrecovered Americans. The self-dubbed MIA Project has since located the remains of eight additional U.S. servicemen. Bill Warnock, the group's chief historian, recounts their efforts in The Dead of Winter.

Beautifully written, The Dead of Winter shows how the MIA Project combined archival research, oral histories, and tenacious field work to find missing Americans. In addition to case studies in applied history, Warnock offers compelling vignettes on wartime happenings and loss incidents. The book then follows recovered human remains through the U.S. government identification system and final interment. Regrettably, Warnock presents these interlocking stories without an overarching analytical structure, therefore leaving important questions unanswered. What is the proper relationship between private and official accounting efforts? Can the U.S. government learn anything from the MIA Project experience? How are recovery and identification activities (past and present) related to American politics, society, and culture? To whom do human remains truly belong? Neglecting these critical issues, The Dead of Winter will disappoint some readers. Portions of the book, including descriptions of MIA Project excavation procedures and intra-governmental relations, may also intensify existing controversies among U.S. military authorities, private investigators, and families of the dead. Yet the power of this book resides in Warnock's storytelling. And for that reason, The Dead of Winter will be circulated and enjoyed by the general public and military historians, even if it has little long-term intellectual impact.